Tamil Nadu people want ‘responsive, transparent’ governance

Chennai, April 12 (IANS) A cross section Tamil Nadu populace wants the state to offer a responsive and transparent governance that can increase the gross state domestic product (GSDP) to Rs.11.6 trillion ($29 billion) by 2025 from the present Rs.2.5 trillion, said a document prepared by industry bodies. According to the Tamil Nadu Vision 2025 document, prepared by the Confederation of Indian Industry-Tamil Nadu (CII-TN) and PricewaterHouse Coopers (PWC), the people want the state to grow its power generation capacity to 111,000 MW.

The other major aspirations of the people mentioned in the document are one mega urban region and four mega cities, 25 world-class urban centres and improved road network across the state.

Releasing the document here Saturday, Local Administration Minister M.K. Stalin said: “Urbanisation, development of infrastructure and education are the basis for economic development.”

Speaking about the modality of preparing the report, Latha Ramanathan, executive director of PWC said: “Instead of approaching any agency, we decided to go for deliberative democratic model of involving people at all levels to document their aspirations and visions”.

Gopal Srinivasan, chairman of CII-TN and director of TVS Electronics Ltd, said the Tamil Nadu Vision 2025, which seeks to identify the critical development challenges of the state, was created after interacting with more than 700 stakeholders representing a wide spectrum of the state’s population.

Pradipta K. Mohapatra, chairman of CII Southern Region and president and CEO of (Technology Business) RPG Enterprises said: “Societies with a per capita income of $1,250 will stop asking what the government would do for them but in turn ask how they could contribute towards the welfare.”

Speaking on the steps taken by the state government to augment its power generation capacity, Electricity and Power Minister Arcot N. Veeraswami said the state would produce 50,000 MW of power through various schemes including merchant power projects, ultra mega power projects and renewable energy sources.

“So far, we have granted permission for 15 companies under the Merchant Power Project to generate 17,400 MW. Fifteen more companies have come forward to set up their base to generate 14,600 MW of power,” he said.

Veeraswami added that 8,000 MW power would be generated through ultra mega project and the government would set up its own power units to produce 7,200 MW.